How do you know when you got a pitcher that will last?

[amazing]

I have seen lots of good pitchers in 10U, 12U and 14U. Many times they disappear by high school or 16/18U??? What happens to them? Mommy or Daddy coaches them out of the game? Didn’t have what it takes to play at higher level? Burn out? What separates the good ones from the pretenders? Do they have to have a coach or can mommy and daddy get the job done?

[tex]

I have seen lots of good pitchers in 10U, 12U and 14U. Many times they disappear by high school or 16/18U??? What happens to them? Mommy or Daddy coaches them out of the game? Didn’t have what it takes to play at higher level? Burn out? What separates the good ones from the pretenders? Do they have to have a coach or can mommy and daddy get the job done?

1) they burn out for a number of reason
a) they have done nothing for 8 to 10 years but practise, play - practise, play, hurt from injuries and they begin to feel there are more things in life than softball.

b) parents push and push and push until they have had enough

c) the love for the game is no longer there

2) they never recover from injuries

3) they fall in love with another sport and/or activity

4) they think they have fallen in love with a boy and wants to spend all their time with him

those are just a few reasons i'm sure the bucket can come up with alot more

[boogerbear]

Tex got most of them for sure. I'll add a few more.

1. When the DD finally gets the courage to tell her parents she doesn't want to play anymore.... this may take some time depending on how aggressive the parents are.

2. The girls start to drive.... hence the boyfriends, shopping, and a J.O.B.

I'm just hopeful that the smile I see on my DD's face whenever I ask her if she wants to go practice never goes away.. when it's still fun for her.

My opinion is I'll be happy with whatever she decides as long as it's truly something she wants to do, and has given it a lot of thought, and understands what it will mean and what affect it will have on others when/if she walks away. Right now, we are setting small, obtainable goals and she works hard to get to them, and is fulfilled when she does achieve them, then it's on to the next goal... For now, she wants a letterman's jacket.... still thinks that's the coolest thing ever.

[GRANDMASTER FLASH]

Its ReALLy EASy Just LOOk aT her face & body MOVEMENTS.ChIlrens DoNts fake it KnOW YO dd AND EncOuRgae her too do WHAT makeZ her happiy.........

[dgorsuch]

If you have a good one encourage her and get her a good pitching coach. Pitching requires much more dedication and practice than most other positions. Mom and dad can take her so far. Maybe to 10U or 12U. Pitchers must have good mechanics and learn how to throw various pitches correctly if they want to avoid injury. Keep it fun, keep it new and let her learn from someone that knows what they are doing. It will build confidence and consistency much faster. I see several girls in our area that are good little pitchers in 10U and 12U that are still using mom and dad as coaches. Thats ok but these parents are far from qualified to take their DDs to a higher level. They seem puzzled that other girls around their DDS are improving much faster than their DD??? Hello?

[DonnieS]

We got into this with the youngest when she was 8. I bought all the tapes, read all the books, and all of that told me to find her a pitching coach. I lucked into Lisa Fernandez at a coaching clinic and spent quite a bit of time with her and Lisa D'Amica - they gave me a lot of info on finding a coach - both on the good and on the not so good, helped a lot.

Early on, and I still feel guilty about this, she would come by my desk, with her glove and ball, and go in the back yard, and warmup and throw for I dont know how long against one of those pitching net things. I would hear the smack, smack, smack as she worked out there by herself. Finally I realized I could do my work later after she went to bed, and just went out and caught for her.

Regarding the smile and getting excited about practice time, that is going to go up and down, I found that the best thing to do is to be careful with having a good instructor, be careful in how she works so that you can keep the work meaningful - she has to know that what she is doing has a point - if she is going to pitch because you tell her to, not going to work. We are in a big up cycle right now - big sister is playing at the level she wants to play at and big sister comes home now and then telling little sister what its like - so she is getting me out to do her hitting workouts , getting me to schedule with her hitting instructor, as well as practicing her pitching, specially her new pitches or new twists on old pitches.

There are going to be times when you have to tell her "Its Time !" I equate this to back when I was taking piano lessons, i had to be forced - the difference is she loved to play softball, I hated piano back then. I have had her tell me after me telling her 'time to get your xxxx out there' and then we have a good session, 'sometimes Dad, you have to just get me mad.' Regarding instructions, we have an 8 hour round trip that we did every other weekend for pitching instructions - so to do this, there is definitely a motivated young lady.

I remember that her sister at about this same age, really cranked up the motivation to practice on her work (the on your own type of work) so I am pleased about this with the young one.

Regarding the ones who parents instruct them, I would say if and only if a parent had played fast pitch, would I have considered 'teaching' my own kid pitching. I have seen very physically gifted kids fall behind farther and farther kids who are getting real pitching instructions from real instructors.

One more thing regarding what Lisa Fernandez and Leah Amica told me - there was a local coach who for various reasons was pushing me to let him work with my dd. Because I use my real name, thats all I can say about the coach. What Lisa and Leah told me was find out how many D1 pitchers that coach has produced - how many of his/her pitchers are successful in D1 softball - that that was a very reasonable test that I should use to select an instructor - other than the normal personality, cost, location, etc. Thats tough when your kid is very young, but I used that when my kid was in the 8-9 year old time frame, having no clue, none, that playing any level of college ball was a possibility.

Kind of disjointed but I am just remembering the things over the last bunch of years.

[amazing]

We got into this with the youngest when she was 8. I bought all the tapes, read all the books, and all of that told me to find her a pitching coach. I lucked into Lisa Fernandez at a coaching clinic and spent quite a bit of time with her and Lisa D'Amica - they gave me a lot of info on finding a coach - both on the good and on the not so good, helped a lot.

Early on, and I still feel guilty about this, she would come by my desk, with her glove and ball, and go in the back yard, and warmup and throw for I dont know how long against one of those pitching net things. I would hear the smack, smack, smack as she worked out there by herself. Finally I realized I could do my work later after she went to bed, and just went out and caught for her.

Regarding the smile and getting excited about practice time, that is going to go up and down, I found that the best thing to do is to be careful with having a good instructor, be careful in how she works so that you can keep the work meaningful - she has to know that what she is doing has a point - if she is going to pitch because you tell her to, not going to work. We are in a big up cycle right now - big sister is playing at the level she wants to play at and big sister comes home now and then telling little sister what its like - so she is getting me out to do her hitting workouts , getting me to schedule with her hitting instructor, as well as practicing her pitching, specially her new pitches or new twists on old pitches.

There are going to be times when you have to tell her "Its Time !" I equate this to back when I was taking piano lessons, i had to be forced - the difference is she loved to play softball, I hated piano back then. I have had her tell me after me telling her 'time to get your xxxx out there' and then we have a good session, 'sometimes Dad, you have to just get me mad.' Regarding instructions, we have an 8 hour round trip that we did every other weekend for pitching instructions - so to do this, there is definitely a motivated young lady.

I remember that her sister at about this same age, really cranked up the motivation to practice on her work (the on your own type of work) so I am pleased about this with the young one.

Regarding the ones who parents instruct them, I would say if and only if a parent had played fast pitch, would I have considered 'teaching' my own kid pitching. I have seen very physically gifted kids fall behind farther and farther kids who are getting real pitching instructions from real instructors.

One more thing regarding what Lisa Fernandez and Leah Amica told me - there was a local coach who for various reasons was pushing me to let him work with my dd. Because I use my real name, thats all I can say about the coach. What Lisa and Leah told me was find out how many D1 pitchers that coach has produced - how many of his/her pitchers are successful in D1 softball - that that was a very reasonable test that I should use to select an instructor - other than the normal personality, cost, location, etc. Thats tough when your kid is very young, but I used that when my kid was in the 8-9 year old time frame, having no clue, none, that playing any level of college ball was a possibility.

Kind of disjointed but I am just remembering the things over the last bunch of years.

Donnie S,
I agree.
Even if mom pitched in 1968 or played SB at another position I still think there is much to be gained by the DD if she is working with a non biased third party. They will be a little more current on proper mechanics and techniques. The pitchers I see working with their parents do not have the confidence and mechanics they should have. Some are getting to pitch a bunch (helps to overcome some of the bad mechanics) because mom or dad are coaches but I still see the bad mechanics and habits that must be corrected sooner or later for them to become good solid pitchers. You know the old saying, "pay me now or pay me later"!! Its much harder for pitchers to make mechanical changes the older thet get.

[hit4power]

Donnie's post is on the mark (as usual). There will be emotional ups and downs with softball as with anything else, but without self motivation, I don't think there is much chance that a player will make it to the highest levels of this or any sport. Parents can provide encouragement, and a push every now and then, but motivation for the long haul is from within.

When we moved to our current home, a young man (high school age) lived down the street a few houses. Every night after his homework was done, he and his dad would be out in their driveway with dad pitching wiffle balls to him and he would hit them across the street into the neighbor's front yard. They had one of those mesh bags that must have held 50 balls and they would hit two or three bags worth for an hour or so every night (or so it seemed). That kid wanted to play baseball in college. He got a D1 scholarship to one of the top programs in the country. He was never a starter in his four years, but his team made it to, and won, the CWS his senior year. He never tried to go pro, got his degree on time, and today has a successful career. I asked his dad, one time, how often he had to make his son go out there and practice hitting. He told me that the only thing he ever made his son do regarding baseball was quit hitting at 11pm so the neighbors could go to sleep.

This post started with a question about pitchers dropping out - does the board think that pitchers drop out at a higher rate than catchers or other position players?

[SnocatzDad]

This post started with a question about pitchers dropping out - does the board think that pitchers drop out at a higher rate than catchers or other position players?

I think what is meant is drop out of pitching, not necessarily out of softball. There are many kids who decide at somepoint that the minimal progess they are making for all the time they are spending practicing pitching isn't going anywhere and start putting that extra effort into other aspects of their game. IMO if every kid on the team put as much time/effort/professional training into hitting as the pitcher's puts into pitching, you wouldn't have very many low scoring games. Every kid on my daughter's team now pitched or caught at some point because they were top athletes within their teams when they were younger and expected to contribute to those top 2 skill positions. I think what this post is looking for is how to identify out of those 6-8 pitchers, which ones will continue with it and get to the next level. I agree that it's mostly up to the kid, and my money is on the one who has a combination of dedication to practice, access to good professional instruction, and lastly talent. I think you need all three to be successful and 2 out of the 3 makes you good but not great.

[hit4power]

I agree that it's mostly up to the kid, and my money is on the one who has a combination of dedication to practice, access to good professional instruction, and lastly talent. I think you need all three to be successful and 2 out of the 3 makes you good but not great.

I'd add mental toughness to your list - not every kid has what it takes between the ears to be a winning pitcher even if she has a ton of physical talent, although I suppose that many of the pitchers with the self-discipline to put in the practice needed probably also have the mental toughness to deal with the pressure that comes with pitching.

I think what this post is looking for is how to identify out of those 6-8 pitchers, which ones will continue with it and get to the next level.

[/quote][/quote]

I had the chance to talk to some college coaches this fall as the exposure circuit played out and one thing I heard frequently was that coaches "over select" pitching (take more pitchers than they actually need) because they don't feel confident that they know which ones will actually make it to the next level as college pitchers. I had the impression they've had and/or seen a lot of suprises in both senses - girls not succeeding who were "sure bets" and girls who succeeded well beyond expectations.